Tech Week: Bitcoin, Everywhere Camera And A Big Anniversary

Apparently Not: A protester holds a placard Tuesday during a demonstration in front of the offices of Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin exchange in Tokyo. On Friday, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection.

Toru Hanai
/ Reuters/Landov

Originally published on March 5, 2014 4:04 pm

It's time for your weekly look back at technology and culture coverage from NPR and beyond. A quick guide, for first-time readers: Our NPR interviews or stories are in the ICYMI section, links to the broader conversations in tech this week are in "The Big Conversation" and links we loved are in "Curiosities."

ICYMI

Caring, Or Creepy? Investigative reporter Julia Angwin talked to Fresh Air about the impossibility of staying anonymous, which is especially pertinent given the topics on NPR.org this week. KQED's Aarti Shahani checked out a new smartphone aimed at protecting your privacy. Bill Chappell wrote about autonomous drones, Aarti looked at the data concerns with online outsourcing, and a clip-on camera on my shirt took pictures of everyone around, every 30 seconds. All Things Considered host Robert Siegel asked a lawyer about that last one, and he uttered the one question that everyone in the office was wondering: "Am I assured by law that Elise Hu just can't take pictures of me every 30 seconds?"

Siri Says ... iPhone users with iOS 6 were vulnerable to a security flaw, Laura Sydell reported. Meanwhile, a real-life Siri: KPLU's Gabriel Spitzer talked to a man who is recording his voice for the time when he will no longer be able to speak.

The Web At 25:As a new Pew study points out — yes, the Web is a quarter-century old! And it's created a whole bunch of opportunities that never existed before: opportunities for adults and teens to misunderstand each other, opportunities for Bitcoin to become a thing. The Web allows a father-son duo who play Call of Duty to an audience of 120,000. On the other hand, the Web was not so generous to Facebook's email platform, which had a much more limited audience and ended up quietly retiring Monday. If an email address that no one uses falls in the middle of the Internet, does it make a sound?

Ever fall asleep on the couch while watching a movie? Netflix is toying with the idea of using a wearable Fitbit tracker to learn when you nodded off, so you can later resume the video stream from that point.